Audit MaineCare

Thanks to Renee Ordway for writing about cab fare for MaineCare recipients, “Cab fare for addicts? It’s on us” (BDN, March 22-23). She brought to light that the MaineCare system and the Department of Health and Human Services are spending thousands of dollars so that methadone clients can take a cab to get their treatment or be reimbursed for their mileage.

When asked, John Martins from DHHS could not access the total amount spent on cab fare. What is going on in Augusta that we cannot have immediate access to where our tax money is spent? The MaineCare waste is not being addressed because we get some federal reimbursement for every Maine dollar spent, and so we look the other way when we see abuses in the system. Shame on our legislators for not looking at MaineCare to make cuts to allocations that should never have been made in the first place.

Cab fare for methadone clients is just the tip of the iceberg. Perhaps a nonpartisan group of citizens should be appointed to audit where the millions of MaineCare dollars are being spent. I think the people of Maine would be overwhelmed and furious with the results.

Pat Martin

Bangor